Hi everyone. After a short break, Writing Tips & Tricks Tuesday has returned. Reminder: most of the stuff – if not all of it – posted on WT&TT is not mine, but reblogged from someone else.
To start up again, I found an interesting article about backstory. I’ll be keeping this in mind when looking at my own writing. If you want to read more than this snippet, then click on the linked title below:
The Shocking Truth About Info Dumps
I’m continuing to write about backstory because it continues to be a topic that confounds writers — and not just any old topic, but a seminal topic. Because backstory is the heart of your novel, without it you will just have a bunch of surface things that happen. In fact, you not only need to create your protagonist’s story-specific backstory before you shove her onto page one, that very backstory will be on the first page. I’m betting you don’t believe me, which is why this month’s entry is all about how backstory is very often right there in the first few pages of your novel, and how it often goes on for pages.
And here’s the shocking thing, given the way writers are often told to think of backstory (that it slows the novel down; or worse, stops it altogether): backstory is actually what holds the story together. It’s the spark that gives it juice. It’s what pulls you in and makes you care. It’s the layer we’re hardwired to respond to; it’s what gives meaning to everything that is happening up there on the surface.
myzania 